Thicker
by socks-lost
Summary: Set after 3x01. An alternate ending of sorts. One-shot.


**A/N:**Set after 3x01 so if you haven't seen it...I wrote this because I was thinking about Jane's "Blood is thicker than water." line. As a person whose family isn't very family like I tend to not agree with that line of thinking. Because sometimes blood is like dirt next to water and you're in a desert. Sometimes you need the water. Sometimes all blood does is spill it. And there was a tangent that I just casually stepped on and I'm back. I would've put a paragraph at the beginning but I tried and it just didn't feel right. The first part is a spinoff from the quote(s):_"Would you have shot her?" "Hell yeah, you're a cop."_

**Disclaimer: **Don't own the characters. Not making money. Etc.

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"What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they were the ones who showed up, who stayed in there, regardless." – Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen, page 400.

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_The sound of a bullet ripping through the barrel of a gun would be a sound that stayed with her for the rest of her life. As she stood in the warehouse she saw her father fall from the catwalk. She never noticed he fired his weapon too. She never heard the sound of a second body falling behind her. She raced to his side. Only briefly wondering why Jane wasn't right on her heels. Paddy Doyle the Irish crime lord, her father, was dying. He was bleeding from two gunshot wounds. He kept mumbling the word hope over and over. She was trying to figure out what that meant when she heard it. From behind her she heard Frost talking. "Stay with me Jane! Ambulance is on its way, you're going to be fine. Just stay with me." Maura's eyes widened as she turned. She saw Frost leaning over a barely moving Jane. She heard the fear in his voice as he relayed over the radio for a rush on the medic. _

_She felt dizzy. Her father shot Kevin Flynn. Agent Dean shot her father. Her father shot Agent Dean. Jane shot her father. Her father shot Jane. This was too much. The excitement from going undercover quickly drained from her body. She was a medical examiner. She did not sign up for this. She shouldn't have been here. Doyle shouldn't have been there. None of this should have happened. She glanced over her shoulder back at the now small group of huddled officers. _

_Who did she choose? Father or best friend? How was she supposed to make that decision? Both were family, only one was blood. And blood, blood was thicker than water. The line should have been clearly drawn; the choice should have been easy: father. Except, her father wasn't the man who raised her. Her father gave her up, he abandoned her. He held her at gunpoint once, he'd kidnapped her. He was wanted by the FBI. He was not what she had in mind when she thought of who her birth parents were. She thought maybe they were too young or not financially secure or they had died that was why she had to be given up. Never in her wildest dreams could she ever have imagined that the head of the Irish mob in Boston would be her father. Jane was not blood but she was her best friend. She gave her a home; let her belong to a group. But Doyle was her father. And blood was thicker than water. She glanced back at the group getting a death glare from Korsak. Stumbling to her feet, she made her way to Jane. Guilt and a strange sense of loyalty trumping the feelings she still couldn't name for the crime boss. _

_Frost had blood all over his hands. Frankie's face was ashen as he held his sister's hand. They cleared the way for Maura to work her magic but she could tell it was too late. Jane was coughing up blood. Her body was shaking as she rapidly went into shock. The yellow shirt she was wearing was covered in blood. The badge on her hip was also covered in blood. There was just so much blood. Maura was still trying to figure out what to do. All of these cops were staring at her pleading with their eyes for her to save one of their own. Frankie was looking at her. "Please don't let her die, Maura." Then she was thrown into another world where Jane was saying those things about him. And Jane was shooting herself outside of the precinct dying all over again. And her mother was getting hit by a car. And Doyle was dying with all his secrets. And Garrett was going to Milan. And Ian was getting on a plane to go back to Africa. Everyone was leaving. Everyone was disappearing from her life without a trace all at once. _I'm used to being alone. I'll be okay._ Those words echoed eerily in her mind. She didn't want to be alone anymore. She didn't want to be alone anymore and she wasn't going to be okay. _

A loud noise sent her tumbling forward. She jerked finding her head resting on a steering wheel. She blinked. Had she been asleep? Had it all been a dream? And there was that noise again. It was dark out; she was still in the cemetery parking lot. She blinked again finally looking towards where the noise was coming from. A bright light was shining through the window of her car. She rolled the window down. "Ma'am, are you okay?" The young officer asked bringing the light lower so he could see her face. Suddenly Maura couldn't breathe. Her heart felt like it was going to explode. Tears were splashing down her face. She was so sick of crying, but it seemed like she couldn't stop. "Is there someone I can call to pick you up? I don't think you should drive like this." The officer said awkwardly. He was never any good with crying women. He could make his guesses as to why this woman was crying. She was at a cemetery asleep in her car; it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Though, knowing this didn't help him much.

Maura grabbed her phone from her purse fumbling briefly with the screen. She couldn't see through the tears and her hands were shaking so bad she couldn't hit the right buttons. She looked helplessly up at the officer, a strangled sob escaping her lips. The officer extended his hand, trying to fix the problem the only way he knew how. She placed the phone in his gloved palm. "Jane." It was the first name that popped into her head. She immediately regretted uttering the one syllable as the officer found the name in her contacts list. But before she could change her mind the officer was already talking into her speaker.

He heard the phone ring once then in the middle of the second ring the person on the other end picked up. "Hello is this Jane?"

"Yes. Who is this? Why do you have Maura's phone?" He could hear the distress in the woman's rough voice. He heard her already packing things up to leave.

He cleared his throat. "I'm Officer McClintock. I found your friend asleep in her car at the cemetery I don't think she's fit to drive herself home, would you mind coming to pick her up?"

"What?" Jane barked into the speaker. She finished throwing on her sneakers not caring that they looked ridiculous with the khakis that she had yet to change out of. "I'm on my way. Stay with her until I get there."

"Yes, ma'am." He said into the phone. He ended the call. "Your friend's on her way." He said reassuringly to Maura with an easy smile. He gently handed the phone off to her. He was grateful to see that that the tears had mostly subsided from her face, but it was replaced with something else that he couldn't quite place. The wait for Jane was short in reality but felt like hours. He couldn't find the words to help the woman. Finally, he saw the headlights of a car, he heard tires squeal and dirt and rocks flew into the air. There was not a doubt in his mind that that was Jane. Once the woman in the other car threw her car in park he quickly became a non-event, just background noise.

Jane ran towards Maura. "God, Maura, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I never should have left you here alone." She opened the door to Maura's car not even noticing the officer standing there. She pulled Maura from her seat to a standing position. Grasping her in the tightest hug she could manage without killing the smaller woman. All the griping about hugs from the past few days seemed to become a non-issue for both women. Maura held onto Jane's blue polo like it was her one and true anchor keeping her grounded. Jane looked at the officer over Maura's head. "We can leave her car here?" He nodded his head. "Thank you." Again he nodded his head. He watched briefly as Jane pulled Maura to her car and sat her down in the passenger side before running back to the other car to grab Maura's belongings and locking the door. He cleared himself over the radio before leaving the scene shooting a silent prayer into the sky.

Maura wrapped her arms tighter around herself. Jane reached around grabbing her Evidence Management jacket from the backseat and tossed it to Maura. She put it on, inhaling the scent. It smelled like Jane, it smelled like home. "You came." Maura's voice was barely recognizable. It was torn and broken; it made Jane's heart hurt.

"Your place or mine?" Jane asked roughly, trying to ignore the lump in her throat.

"My house is still a mess from the break in." Jane nodded turning the key in the ignition.

…

A few minutes later Maura found herself sitting on Jane's couch with Jane on her left. Angela was asleep in Jane's bedroom. "I'm so sorry, Maura. I'm so, so sorry." Jane said breaking the silence.

"Why'd you come and get me?" Maura asked without looking at Jane.

The question caught Jane off guard. "Because you called. You asked and I showed up."

"But why?" Maura insisted. "We aren't – weren't – speaking. There has to be a reason, Jane. There's always a reason."

"You call, I show up. That's how it works, Maura." Jane sighed. How could Maura not understand this concept? "It's what families do."

"Blood is thicker than water." Maura countered quietly throwing Jane's own words back at her. "I'm water."

If it were possible Jane felt her heart break a little more. She needed to rectify this now. "I'm a detective." She started out uneasily. "I'm good at reading people. I have to be, doing what I do for a living. I can tell what makes a person tick. I know what to say that will make someone snap. I know the words that will hurt the most. When I…" She started fidgeting with her hands like she so often did when she was nervous or in deep thought. "When my emotions are running high I – I'm a bitch. I run my mouth off without thinking of the consequences. And Maura, if you never listen to anything I say ever again, just listen to what I'm about to say." Jane took a deep breath placing her hand on Maura's knee. "I love you." There was no question in the words. They were solid and true. "I love you and you are family. You pretty much let my whole family live in your guest house. You saved my brother's life. You are the person I call, the one I go to. You understand me in ways that I don't understand myself. And it scares me. You are the most important person in my life. And it scares me. I love you. And it scares me." She felt Maura's hand on top of hers. "It all hit me when I saw your name on that headstone. You're not water, Maura. You've never been water. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have said a lot of things. And I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

Silence enveloped them for a moment letting Maura digest the words before breaking it. "Jane?" She was so exhausted. She just wanted to forget the last week ever happened. She wanted to sleep for days. They could talk later, there was so much time to say all the things that needed to be said.

"Yeah?"

"Can we just go to sleep?"

"Do you want to go with Ma on my bed? I'll stay out here."

Maura shook her head. She was tired of being alone. "Just lay here with me, please."

Jane nodded her head kicking off her shoes in a random direction as Maura gently took her heels off. Jane leaned back into the couch first. Maura turned to face her, burying her head into Jane's neck and grabbing fistfuls of the navy polo. She felt Jane wrap her arms around her back pulling her closer. She felt like she was finally home. "I'm sorry too." She whispered before focusing on the warmth from Jane's body and the steadily beating heart of her detective. Finally, she let her eyes fall shut. Jane rubbed Maura's back until she felt her own heavy lids close.

In the morning Angela Rizzoli would wake up to find her daughter and her surrogate daughter entangled on the couch. Later the entire Rizzoli clan and Frost and Korsak would help Maura put her house back together. Blood might have been thicker than water in a science lab but in the real world it was much more complicated than that.


End file.
